Another Grasshopper Plague

[Rodneyd]

We have the little buggers North of Austin. We have 8 chickens and they are working to a certain extent. We got the chickens last year and could tell a difference from the previous year. We turn them out for a few hours each evening and then they are ready to go back in and be closed up at sunset. Heard this morning on the news we are over 6 inches behind on the rain. Also read last year that the rain and moisture in fact does promote a virus that kills the grasshoppers......no rain.....many grasshoppers.
Rod

 

[TxSam]

Bird,

We got 'em here in Waxahachie also, thousands of them like you said, 1/4 in. long or so. I didn't own the property last spring so I don't have anything to compare to, but late last summer when I was looking to buy the property, there were plenty of the big ones flying/hopping around. When you would drive through the pasture it was like a small cloud of grasshoppers scattering in front of the truck. I guess they left their legacy for another year! I was kind of hoping they would die off before the dry summer hits, we'll see.

 

[Tdog]

Bird,

I remember you complaining about this time last year. Bummer that they are back again.

No out break over here in SE La. I was going to post that we'd been 36 days without rain, but 0.6 inch fell today, & it is sprinkling again. Boy did we need it. While we average 60+ inches a year, we've only received a little over 3 inches since April 1.

If I'm complaining, I hate to think what the people along the eastern seaboard are going through - - I understand they are in an all out drought.

 

[8NTX]

Do they make such a thing as a grasshopper suit for hoggin'? Last year, mowing in the summer was pretty hairy cause of the hoppers. Got lots this year too. No chickens - part time weekend place and they wouldn't last with all the coyotes, bobcats, etc.

 

[Bird]

Little over 3" since April 1? I've gotten a little less than 2.5" in that time span; including about 2/3 of an inch yesterday. Of course, our "normal" annual rain is about 33" a year. And the grasshoppers aren't really bad at my place yet like at the neighbor's, but I do have a few. I picked 5 gallons of green beans, 5 gallon bucket of squash, a dozen or so cucumbers, and a couple dozen eachof beets and onions this morning to take to our kids tomorrow. Then I picked about a quart and a half of blackberries; that's the first blackberries this year, but looks like a bumper crop coming in.

 

[wichiwichi]

So what insecticide will kill the eggs?

 

[Bird]

The neighbor who has been inundated by grasshoppers had a dozen or so free ranging guinea hens when we first moved here, but something gradually killed them all, one or two at a time, so he hasn't had any the last 4 or 5 years. Well, he bought 6 more a couple of months ago, but has had them penned up in hopes they'd get accustomed to roosting in the hen house and would return there every night and he could close the pen up. He finally turned them out yesterday and enjoyed watching them chase grasshoppers, but they didn't return to the pen and hen house last night. This morning, they found one live one hiding in the fence row, one dead one with no feathers on its neck, and 4 piles of feathers. No idea what killed them, but this couple was sleeping with the window open, never heard anything, and the guineas couldn't have been more than 150 feet from the open window.

 

[Alan L.]

Bird, I already have millions of grasshoppers here about 50 miles north of Dallas. We put sulphur all over every plant in the small garden, but they will eat ever leaf off every tree on the place. I hate them rascals.

BB TX - I'm only about 35 miles or so sorta West of you - a little bit west of Gunter, which is where I grew up.

 

[drpepper]

Bird, Keep those grasshoppers down there! They are starting to come out around here. Not enough grass for them and the horses too. Looked at your bio. My boy lived at Tennessee Colony till recently. Got promoted and transferred to Navasota. Really nice country you're in. I am about 70 miles Northeast of Amarillo. Hardly any rain up here this year. Normally only 18-19" a year. Doing it's durndest to bring that average down the last few years.

 

[Bird]

Bob, we "normally" get 33-34 inches of rain a year. This year Dallas is way ahead and we're way behind, but the Memorial Day weekend brought us 3" of rain in 3 days and now a heavy dew every morning. We have a lot of little grasshoppers, but they really haven't damaged my garden yet like they have done to the neighbor's. I did spray diazinon around the house, shop, and barn yesterday, but still haven't put any insecticide on the garden and don't guess I will since it's producing more than we can use and/or give away.

I guess the best thing is that we've had unusually cool weather so far. Just wish it would stay that way./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif